Nuclear powers agree to cut arsenals, Dec. 8, 1987

At a White House ceremony on this day in 1987, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the first treaty between the two superpowers calling for a reduction in their nuclear arsenals. The Senate ratified the pact, known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, on May 27, 1988, and it went into effect on June 1 of that year.

Under the INF treaty, both nations eliminated their stock of nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges of 300 to 3,400 miles.

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By June 1, 1991, the deadline set by the treaty, 2,692 weapons had been destroyed — 846 by the United States. and 1,846 by the Soviet Union. The treaty also permitted each side to inspect the other’s military installations.

Prior arms control agreements between Washington and Moscow merely sought to limit the growth of their nuclear arsenals. Thus, the INF pact proved to be a breakthrough that led to a second deal concluded in 1991, when President George H.W. Bush and Gorbachev agreed to destroy more than a quarter of their nuclear warheads. Then, in 1992, Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to reduce their number of long-range missiles to about 3,000 launching systems each by 2003.

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The 1987 agreement came after the Soviet Union’s deployed its SS-20 missile system, which led to a strong U.S. response. The SS-20s replaced older SS-4 and SS-5 missiles. Their longer range and greater accuracy, mobility and striking power were perceived in Washington and NATO capitals to have altered the strategic balance in Western Europe.

In response, NATO adopted a two-prong strategy: first, to pursue arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce the Soviet and American INF arsenals and, second, to deploy in Western Europe, beginning in 1983, 464 ground-launched cruise missiles and 108 Pershing II ballistic missiles.

Under the current arms control deal between Washington and Moscow, known as the “New START Treaty,” as of Sept. 1, 2017, the United States deploys 660 intercontinental ballistic missiles and heavy bombers with 1,393 nuclear warheads. Russia has in its current active arsenal 501 ICBMs and heavy bombers with 1,565 nuclear warheads. The treaty calls for satellite and remote monitoring, as well as 18 annual on-site inspections to verify agreed-upon limits.

The treaty entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011, when the United States and Russia exchanged instruments of ratification, following its approval by the U.S. Senate and the Russian Federal Assembly. (The United States began implementing reductions even before the treaty was ratified.)

On Feb. 9, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his first telephone call with President Donald Trump, inquired about the chances of further extending New START, which is due to expire in 2021. During their hourlong exchange, Trump attacked the treaty, asserting that it favored Russia and was “one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration.”